Sermons
Inside Sojourn
Crazy Cop Jesus: Is God Out To Get You?
Since Monday I’ve been talking about the different “images of a small god” that we create in our minds. Each one is a startling contrast to Jesus Christ, as described in Colossians 1:14-23. The Jesus we often settle for is not the Jesus of scripture. He’s a small Jesus, who acts like:
Or, a crazy cop. Like the demanding boss, the crazy cop flourishes in a spirit of legalism. But this little false god is always out to get you. He’s ready to throw the book at you for the slightest infraction. He follows you when you walk. His squad car shadows yours when you drive. He stakes you out each night, ready to call the SWAT team in for the slightest breach of character.
You can’t please Crazy Cop Jesus.
Fortunately, you don’t need to. Crazy Cop Jesus is nothing like the picture the Bible presents of Jesus. The real Jesus came precisely because He KNOWS we can’t keep the Law perfectly. He lived that perfect life, and yet He died for every infraction we would ever commit.
For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant. — Colossians 1:19-23
About Daniel Montgomery
I can be thankful even for legalism, to drive me to Christ. As I keep trying to obey my way into His favor, the more I realize it is impossible. Jesus, teaching the sermon on the Mount was teaching under the law, teaching what the law required. I don’t know about anybody else, but it is not one of my warm fuzzzy passages that I go to for comfort. If you take it seriously, it is terrifying. But in the end I can learn from Him that, that is the point. I can’t , He can , and He did! He met all of God, the Fathers’ requirements, and He offers that exchange to me. Amazing Love, Amazing Grace, Amazing Mercy. To God be the Glory, great things ‘He’ has done! Not me. MARANATHA